I think confidence stops more people from excelling in the deep water fishing than anything. It takes a lot of time to learn to graph, then correctly position the boat then the right way to fish it, and sometimes I find myself giving up instead of trying to fish it a different way. The learning curve is hard to progress thru when you are not sure you are doing any of it correctly. I am just so stubborn and want to figure it out vs having to have someone show me.

For me there is no better feeling than being able to graph fish deep...throw a marker out and catch fish. I am not very good at it and learned a lot from guided trips but it sure is rewarding when it all comes together.

Biggest down side to me is when I spend the better part of a day graphing and don't find any fish.

I have learned to fish deep fishing deep water lakes in N. Georgia.. there, even when you are casting to the bank.. the boat is in 40' of water. Learning where bass live in deep water is trial and error.. yes.. there are places where they should be and are and there are places where they should be and they aren't.. But the key is to fish them with baits you have confidence in.. If you catch fish shallow with a green pumpkin trick worm.. I would fish that deep as well. The only thing I would change would be from Texas rig to C Rig or Drop Shot.. Good luck learning.. it will be worth it once you get confidence in it.

BD

I have a few spots on different lakes that I can stick a 5-6lb bass or three regularly. The "spot" is the size of a bedroom and the lakes are 45,000 acres and larger. The more "spots" you identify the better you will do in a tournament...30lbs is a team that hit some hot "spots" at the right time. Timing on the "spots" is important because you may have pulled up when the fish were inactive but in an hour they may be feeding heavy. Give it 15 minutes and try another "spot" if they aren't biting and come back later.

Time on the water is the only way to find consistent "spots" and when you find them keep them to yourself or they will get beat up. Share bait used, cover, water temp and depth but not description of where. With side imaging your "spot" will soon become a public hole. I feel for guides on having to find sufficient quantities of "spots" to keep clients on fish knowing a percentage of clients will come back in their own boat and beat those spots up. That's the reason I won't fish draw tournaments, I've had coanglers in a few draw tournaments straight out tell me they were only fishing the draw tournament to get "spots" to fish in an upcoming tournament they were fishing. I was doing their prefishing for them.

there are two guides on Lake Fork that you can hire for 1/2 days that specialize in helping you to learn how your electronics work and will show you what you are seeing.

I have fished with anglers who have hired both of them and thought they did a great job.